Azimuth is the fourth studio album from the New Orleans-based band Mighty Brother. The album’s style is a mix of multiple genres from Classic Rock, to Alternative Rock to even some Jazz and Blues sections that spice up the mood and the atmosphere in a very creative and experimental way. Composed of 11 tracks, the band wrote Azimuth as a concept album about a fictional character’s journey through modern society. The geometrical term Azimuth pertains to the angle between the North and a celestial object being observed, and so the band used this as an analogy to navigating through life’s hardships.
The opening track, Every Drop Of Moonlight, brings home all the jazzy goodness with its warm vocal lines and clean guitars. The spotlight of this track definitely has to be its masterful saxophone solo. With a very powerful bassline and added percussions (probably made by a djembe), the jazz-infused progressive rock sound really comes to life. The second track, Weighed Down, sounds a bit heavier in its intro, then the verses go back to being smooth and the vocal acrobatics and high notes are very powerful. At this point, you can tell that the band has a musical fingerprint and an identity to them from how they write and arrange their tracks. The following track, Ovah- Tu- Mawai, sounds like a purely classic Jazz or blues track from the greatest era of those genres. Midnight Moon is one of the more somber and soothing tracks. The title track, Azimuth, has got to be my favorite from the entire album. It sounds extremely dreamy and romantic and it’s a favorite that I could repeat on its own without the rest of the album. The saxophone and keyboard solos here made me imagine an erotic scene that the album’s character is going through. The track is generally bombastic and grandiose-sounding and this is why I favor it over the rest of the track. Moving on, Normal Seas is a soft ballad that will appeal to fans of Cigarettes After Sex as it is very reminiscent of that sound (while maintaining the Mighty Brother sound). I fell in love with the short guitar solo after the verse; a nice variation from the saxophone solos in previous tracks. The track keeps on progressing and acquiring a bigger sound as we move on towards its end, which I found to be a very intriguing songwriting choice.
The seventh track is titled “Track 7 Blew My Mind” and is the funkiest and bright-sounding one of the album so far. The drums are hard-hitting and the bass guitar is present more than ever here, creating that dancy vibe and nostalgic Jazz atmosphere. Rubia Marionet is another somber track with vocals that are full of attitude. It has the album’s best vocal performance in my opinion, and what further compliments it is the word painting done by the lead guitar and the saxophone. The ninth track, Doldrums, brings incredible bluesy guitars with well-thought and well-timed drumming and off-beat vocals in a very theatrical atmosphere. It’s very beautiful to hear tracks where modern meets classic like this one. Another pleasant surprise here is some vocal distortion and grit, as well as some arpeggios and high-note crescendos done in full head voice. There’s nothing there not to love about this track. Cliffs & The Ghost has a peacefully rhythmic and percussive intro. The track carries its emotional weight beautifully with the clean guitars and vocals, although that dancy rhythm is present throughout. There is an abrupt transition with a key change that adds more energy and ferocity to the last chorus and the outro, you’ll find yourself screaming along to “Nobody knows my name” time after time with that outro. The eleventh and final track, The Breakers, is another ballad that begins with only vocals and clean guitars and slowly picks up its pace with some cymbals that salt every emotional wound as you listen to it. I challenge anyone not to feel emotional after this track. The soft airy vocals grasp your soul as they make way for the beautiful outro of the entire album.
In conclusion, Azimuth is a coherent and cohesive record that knows how to put certain elements in the spotlight without letting them cancel out the others. This balance and maturity in songwriting is something I highly appreciate about Mighty Brother and it makes me wanna hear these songs in a live show to try and regenerate the feelings I lived with this concept album as much as I can. A total masterpiece and a wonderful journey.
